SDR vs BDR
Trying to figure out the difference between SDR vs BDR?
Tech sales job titles can be confusing …
First, let’s spell out the acronyms:
- SDR stands for Sales Development Representative
- BDR stands for Business Development Representative
If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you want to do one of two things:
- Get a job as an SDR/BDR
- Hire an SDR/BDR for your sales team
In either case, it’s important to know the differences between the two jobs because you need to know what job title to search for (if you’re a job seeker) or what job title to put on your job posting (if you’re hiring).
I’ve reviewed thousands of SDR and BDR job descriptions, and here’s what I’ve realized …
They’re very similar.
In fact, these two job titles are often used interchangeably in day-to-day conversation in the tech sales world.
I’ve heard sales leaders say, “We need to hire an SDR or BDR or something like that.”
Or, you’ll see job seekers put something like “Seeking SDR/BDR roles” on their LinkedIn profiles.
The general understanding is that SDR and BDR are entry-level sales roles and they’re mainly responsible for finding and qualifying leads.
That being said, there are still some key differences between SDR vs BDR that are important to know …
Whether you’re an aspiring tech sales professional considering your career path or an employer looking to expand your sales team, this blog will help you make the right decision between SDR and BDR.
What is an SDR?
SDR is an acronym for Sales Development Representative.
It’s the most common job title for entry-level salespeople in tech sales.
At a high level, SDRs are responsible for prospecting and qualifying leads in the early stages of the sales process.
Their tasks include cold calling, emailing, and/or social media outreach to potential customers who have either shown interest in the product/service or at least fit the ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).
An SDR’s main goal is to set appointments for more senior members of the sales team (usually called Account Executives).
However, to fully understand the SDR job, we need a short history lesson …
A Short History of the SDR
The earliest sales development team was started by Anneke Seley at Oracle in the early 1980s, according to Wikipedia. Seley, the 12th employee at Oracle, was one of the first sales leaders to combine modern technology with sales, later authoring the books Sales 2.0 and Next Era Selling.
But most people attribute the origin of the SDR role to the book Predictable Revenue, written by Aaron Ross in 2011.
Ross was the Director of Corporate Sales at Salesforce from 2002 to 2005. During that time, Ross “built a new tele-prospecting inside sales team and process (Cold Calling 2.0) from scratch that sourced $100m in recurring revenue for Salesforce,” according to his LinkedIn.
Here are the key points from the book Predictable Revenue that define the SDR role as we know it today:
- Specialization: Sales teams should be broken up into specialized segments, with dedicated teams focused on specific roles such as prospecting, closing, and account management.
- Sales Development Team: Create a dedicated SDR team responsible for prospecting and qualifying leads.
- Cold Calling 2.0: A new approach to cold calling that involves email outreach, personalized messaging, and follow-up sequences.
Nowadays, almost every tech company uses some version of the specialized sales model that Ross developed at Salesforce: SDRs find qualified leads and pass them along to Account Executives (AEs) to close deals.
Okay, now you’re all caught up on the history of the SDR role and why it’s so integral to the modern sales team.
And you have a basic understanding of what SDRs do: prospect and qualify leads at the beginning of the sales process.
Next, let’s look at how SDRs compare to BDRs …
What is a BDR?
BDR is an acronym for Business Development Representative.
It’s the second most common job title for entry-level tech sales (SDR is #1).
BDRs, like SDRs, are responsible for generating and qualifying leads at the initial stages of the sales funnel.
Okay … so, what is the difference between BDR and SDR?
Difference Between BDR vs SDR
Some say that BDRs do outbound prospecting while SDRs qualify inbound leads.
But then at other companies, it’s the exact opposite.
Or, they’ll say that BDRs are more involved in strategic, high-level business development (e.g., market research, identifying opportunities, building relationships with new accounts) while SDRs focus on the sales process (e.g., prospecting, qualifying, setting appointments).
But it’s not always so clearly defined like that.
In theory, there are differences between SDRs and BDRs. Otherwise, why would they have different names?
In practice, however, these two job titles are often used interchangeably in the tech sales world.
To show you what I mean, let’s look at some actual job postings on LinkedIn to compare SDRs and BDRs. You’ll see that their responsibilities are often very similar …
SDR Job Description Examples
These are real SDR job descriptions on LinkedIn that I screenshotted on March 12, 2024 …
Sales Development Representative at Snowflake
Here’s the link to the job posting on LinkedIn.
Sales Development Representative at Asana
Here’s the link to the job posting on LinkedIn.
SDR Responsibilities
Here are some of the SDR responsibilities listed in the SDR job descriptions above:
- Call
- Social selling
- Outbound
- Inbound
- Prospect
- Qualify
- Research accounts
- Set meetings
- Generate pipeline
- Create opportunities
- Update Salesforce (CRM)
Next, let’s look at BDR job descriptions to see if they’re any different than SDR jobs (hint: they’re not really) …
BDR Job Description Examples
These are real BDR job descriptions on LinkedIn that I screenshotted on March 12, 2024 …
Business Development Representative at Adobe
Here’s the link to the job posting on LinkedIn.
Business Development Representative at Webflow
Here’s the link to the job posting on LinkedIn.
BDR Responsibilities
Here are some of the BDR responsibilities listed in the BDR job descriptions above:
- Phone
- Social media
- Outbound
- Inbound
- Prospect
- Qualify
- Demand generation
- Pipeline generation
- Set meetings
- Identify opportunities
- Update CRM
Now, let’s look at all the similarities between BDR and SDR in those job postings …
Similarities Between BDR vs SDR
After reviewing those job descriptions, now we know it’s not necessarily the case that BDRs do only outbound and SDRs do only inbound, or vice versa.
Also, it’s not accurate to say that BDRs only do biz dev and SDRs only do sales stuff.
BDR and SDR are more similar than they are different.
They’re both focused on the early stages of the sales process, which mainly involves prospecting and qualifying sales leads. They’re responsible for setting qualified meetings, creating opportunities, and generating revenue. And their day-to-day tasks include calling, emailing, and social media outreach.
However, there is one difference between SDR and BDR that is very important if you’re seeking SDR/BDR roles or hiring for an SDR/BDR …
SDR Is More Common Than BDR
This is the most important difference between SDR and BDR, particularly for job seekers and employers …
SDR is the more commonly used job title, compared to BDR.
I did these two searches for SDR and BDR jobs on LinkedIn on March 12, 2024:
- 3,222 results for “sales development representative” in the United States
- 2,488 results for “business development representative” in the United States
Why is this important?
If you’re a job seeker, you’ll have more jobs to apply to if you search for SDR.
If you’re hiring, it’s a bit more complicated. Because you’ll have more competition if you post an SDR job, but there’s also higher search volume for SDR …
For Employers: Choosing Between SDR vs BDR
So you want to hire an SDR or a BDR for your sales team, but you’re not sure which one …
As we explained above, these two job titles are pretty much interchangeable in terms of how they’re actually used in tech sales.
That being said, technically, there are differences …
The most obvious one being that SDRs should technically be focused on sales and BDRs should technically be focused on business development.
If you want to be a stickler for choosing the job title that exactly matches the job function, here are the main benefits of each role that might sway you to choose one role over the other …
Benefits of SDR in Sales
- Inbound Qualifying: If you have enough inbound lead volume, an SDR can help with qualifying to filter out the leads that are not a good fit, ensuring that only high-quality, ready-to-buy leads are passed onto the AE team.
- Closer Engagement with Leads: SDRs are usually the first point of contact for potential customers, and their interactions in the early stages of the sales process make a big impact on whether deals will ultimately close.
- Sales Pipeline Generation: SDRs keep the sales pipeline full by generating and qualifying leads. This allows the AE team to concentrate on closing deals, rather than finding new ones.
Benefits of BDR in Sales
- Outbound Prospecting: If you need to increase your lead volume, BDRs can do outbound prospecting (cold calling, email, social selling) to find leads.
- Strategic Targeting: BDRs are experts at strategic targeting, identifying potential market segments and clients that fit your ICP. They spend significant time researching to understand the market, study industry trends, and keep an eye on the competition.
- Building Partnerships and Networking: Partnerships can be significant revenue opportunities. BDRs develop these partnerships by networking and having conversations with other players in the space.
- Business Expansion: BDRs can aid in nurturing existing client relationships, breaking into new markets, or diversifying the company’s offerings.
FAQs
Which is higher between SDR vs BDR?
There isn’t a “higher” role between SDR and BDR.
They’re both entry-level tech sales jobs.
At certain companies, the SDR role may be higher than the BDR role, or vice versa. But that would be decided on a company-by-company basis.
What is the average tenure in a BDR or SDR role?
Most BDRs/SDRs get promoted within 1-2 years.
However, to get promoted, you need to have a consistent track record of hitting your quota (e.g., number of appointments set, number of qualified opportunities, amount of pipeline generated).
Some BDRs/SDRs will quit within their first year because they find the job to be too difficult. This is understandable because it can be hard to cold call and face constant rejection. It’s not for everybody.
If you make it through your first 1-2 years in entry-level tech sales, then you’ll be in a great position for career growth and higher earnings …
What is the next position after SDR?
I’ve written a whole other post about different possible tech sales career paths after you start out as an SDR.
The most common promotion after SDR is to become an AE. As an AE, instead of setting appointments, you’ll be the one taking the appointments and closing deals.
Some companies might promote you to Senior SDR or Enterprise SDR before they promote you to AE.
You can also become an SDR Manager. You would go from doing the SDR work yourself to teaching a team of SDRs to do the same work that you did before.
The good thing about tech sales is there are SO many different career paths and career growth opportunities. After you get some experience in an entry-level tech sales role like SDR/BDR, a lot of doors will open up for you.
Is SDR under sales or marketing?
An SDR position is often a part of the sales department, but the role intersects significantly with marketing as well.
SDRs are basically the bridge between marketing and sales, ensuring that the leads generated by marketing efforts are appropriately qualified before they are passed along to the AEs.
This connection between the two departments is crucial for effective lead management and for ensuring that potential customers have a seamless experience as they transition from being a prospect to a customer.
So, in a way, SDRs wear both hats—they are marketers when they qualify and nurture leads, and salespeople when they do outreach, handle objections, and set appointments for AEs.
Conclusion
SDR and BDR are both extremely important roles in tech sales. They make a big impact on the quantity and quality of leads that enter the top of your sales funnel.
I’ve read some other blog posts that make it seem like SDR and BDR are very different roles, but based on my 10+ years of experience in tech sales (and the example job descriptions shown above), that’s just not the case. The roles are very similar.
Job seekers can apply to both roles and employers can quickly choose between the two roles based on the guidelines provided above.
If you’re seeking SDR/BDR roles, here’s how we can help:
- Enroll in this course on how to get an SDR/BDR job
- Schedule a free consultation for 1:1 coaching
Hiring for SDRs/BDRs? We have a ton of great candidates coming to Break Into Tech Sales. If you’re interested in our recruiting service, schedule a call to learn more.
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